Sex offender pleads guilty in SDSU student's death

A sex offender pleaded guilty yesterday to involuntary manslaughter in the 2007 disappearance of a San Diego State University student and told the judge that he dumped the 19-year-old's body into the ocean after she overdosed on drugs.

John Steven Burgess said that after Donna Jou died, he “just panicked and got scared and made a really bad decision.”

“I went down to my sailboat and I just gave her to the sea,” Burgess said in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Jou's body has not been found.

In addition to the felony count of involuntary manslaughter, Burgess, 36, of Los Angeles pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of concealment of an accidental death. In exchange for his plea, charges of sale or transportation of heroin and sale or transportation of cocaine will be dismissed when Burgess is sentenced to five years in prison May 18, prosecutors said.

Burgess said he met Jou of Rancho Santa Margarita through an ad on the Craigslist Web site, and threw a party in June 2007 where he gave her heroin and cocaine.

Burgess said he woke up the next morning and found Jou dead. Investigators believe she died of an accidental overdose. –A.P.

2 found dead at home in
apparent murder-suicide

SCRIPPS RANCH: A couple were found dead at their home Tuesday night in an apparent murder-suicide, San Diego homicide detectives said yesterday.

Firefighters found the bodies of Grace Choe, 62, and Richard Young Choe, 67, inside a home on Golden Birch Way, near Farmingdale Street, about 7:45 p.m., authorities said. The couple had obvious wounds, and a handgun was found near Richard Choe's body, detectives said.

Friends alerted police after going to the couple's home when they failed to attend a church event and seeing Grace Choe's body when they looked through a window, detectives said. –J.L.J.
Man arrested in assault
freed; alibi checks out

SAN DIEGO: A man who was arrested and charged in an attack on a woman in Linda Vista last month has been released from jail after police verified his alibi, authorities said yesterday.

Mulugeta Hagos, 24, told investigators he was at his job as a security guard for Kaiser Permanente when the attack took place about 6:15 a.m. April 18, said San Diego police Lt. Rick O'Hanlon of the sex crimes unit. Hagos was released from jail Monday night, pending further investigation, O'Hanlon said.

The 38-year-old woman was walking toward a bus bench on Linda Vista Road near Fulton Street when a man got out of a nearby car. The attacker grabbed her from behind, aimed a pistol at her head and tried to force her into the vehicle, police spokeswoman Mónica Muñoz said at the time.

When the woman fought back, the attacker struck her at least once on the head with the gun, Muñoz said. The weapon went off during the struggle, but the woman was not hit by gunfire.

Investigators declined to say what led them to arrest Hagos on April 22. He was booked into jail on suspicion of attempted sexual assault, assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping for sexual assault.